LG CS560 LCD TV has image issues (pictures)

Overview

The LG CS560 demonstrated excellent color response with saturated and accurate-looking colors. Skin tones were natural and whether displaying a sci-fi cockpit or the deepest woods the colors of the CS560 looked true to life. Also, the TV is fairly cheap.

On the bad side, the TV has woeful black levels and poor uniformity, issues that are especially visible in a darkened room. You can ameliorate these issues by leaving the lights on ( the brighter the better), but that's not a compromise you have to make with other price-comparable TVs from the likes of Toshiba or TCL. While the CS560 is a better deal than the twice-as-expensive LG LS4600, its picture quality issues mean that it's not as good a value as many other sub-$500 televisions.

Picture settings

Picture quality

I arrayed seven budget TVs for my comparison lineup, including a TCL and a Philips, and the LG CS560 and the LG LS4600 battled it out for bottom of the picture quality ladder. Yet, though it's almost half the price of the LS4600, the CS560 did surpass the more expensive TV in some ways. Firstly, colors were more saturated; skin tones in particular were more natural than the LS4600 was capable of.

Secondly, while black levels were fairly dreadful on both TVs, the CS560 had marginally less backlight clouding, which meant that more shadow detail could be seen in dark scenes. It still wasn't what you could call "good," though. But turn on the lights and the CS560 had very good contrast in comparison with the more expensive TV. Who needs LED backlighting when a TV half its price can offer a marginally better picture?

As befits a budget model, though, two other areas showed signs of compromise: off-axis viewing and picture processing were definite weak points.